LONDON - London is ready to lay on the "biggest and best" Paralympic Games ever that will "move the dial" in how paralympic sport is viewed around the world, organisers say.
The Games hope to benefit from the "buzz and momentum" created by the Olympics held in London from July 27 to August 12.
"We are on course to lay on the biggest and best Paralympics ever," British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson told reporters on Tuesday.
Paul Deighton, chief executive of organising committee LOCOG, promised "amazing and enthralling" days ahead.
A total of 2.4 million tickets had been sold for the event, with 100,000 still available, making the London Paralympics likely to become the first sell-out in their history. "The Paralympics were not an afterthought, they were integrated in the planning from the beginning," said Robertson.
"All paralympic requirements were built in from the word go, and we hope to see the benefits from that."
The Games, for which 4300 athletes have come to London, kicked off with an opening ceremony in the Olympic stadium in Stratford, east London, last night.
The Games was officially declared open by the Queen.
The Paralympic flame arrived at the stadium from the town of Stoke Mandeville, in Buckinghamshire, where the Paralympic Movement was born in 1948.